My fiver on WVU's loss at Kansas on Saturday evening...
1. ***We stopped playing basketball at the 8:30 mark of the 2nd half. With a ten point lead, with the ball, Jevon Carter pulled the ball out to near half court, stood there and dribbled. Bled clock. With over 8 minutes to go in the game. In a game where we were shooting the ball as well as ever - in a game where we led basically the entire way - at that point, we admitted that we were scared to play Kansas straight up for the remainder of the game, spotted ten points. It was as stunning as it was ignorant. Miss after miss followed, disjointed offense being ran with the goal of desperation heaves within the final seconds of the shot clock. In front of the entire nation, Bob Huggins and Jevon Carter gave our team a vasectomy. We became impotent. We had no balls. One team was playing to win - Kansas. The other team was playing to get on the bus - WVU. We got what we deserved. I tip my hat to Kansas for playing to win. When you have a ten point lead, for God's sake, try to make that lead 20 by the time the buzzer sounds!!! I would never fault a team for going down swinging. But, to lose a lead this meekly in a game so important...it's just exasperating.
2. Kansas once again has 9 steals vs. WVU, and we only had 4. Once again, you just gotta tip your hat to Kansas. They overplay against us, and dare our guys to drive or back-door cut, which we are not able to do. They deny the passing lanes well. And, Press Virginia just isn't a factor against them. Nevertheless, if we play Kansas straight up for 40 minutes, we still should win.
3. Hate wasting such a magnificent effort from Daxter Miles, Jr. 22 points including 6/9 from 3-point range. Yes, he had a head-scratcher of a turnover down the stretch. But, when we get this good of an effort from Dax, we win. Blows my mind that we couldn't get it done. The bad part is that he tends to follow up these great efforts with a clunker. Something to watch tomorrow vs. Baylor and their matchup zone.
4. Teddy Allen playing only 3 minutes is a real head-scratcher to me. Down the stretch, when we were watching the game slip through our fingers, I would've checked Teddy and Beetle into the game in a heartbeat, with the instruction to get the ball to Teddy on an iso right away. I thought this was the matchup where he could shine.
5. I would take Marcus Goree, Ty Salley, Jon Holton, PG Greene, and even Chris Moss over our current power forward position right now. 30 minutes from Esa Ahmad and we get three shot attempts, 2 points, 2 turnovers, 3 rebounds and 3 fouls? That's what it's come to from our 4? This is why Teddy Allen sits now?
***There's a life lesson in all of this for these kids. No matter the situation you're in, no matter how rosy the outlook may be or how bad it may look, you never, ever stop going full tilt. You never give up. If you're up 10 with 8 minutes to go, challenge yourself and try to win by 20! If you're down by 16 with 8 minutes to go, like we were against Missouri, you give it your all to storm back and win. Those two situations are not mutually exclusive. They are exactly the same metric. You never look at the score, you never look at the clock, you just keep throwing haymakers until the bell rings. I hope they learn from this. Because this loss Saturday was 100% on us. It was not the refs, it was not Phog Allen home-cooking. It was on us. It was entirely because we let Kansas off the mat instead of stomping on their throat.
1. ***We stopped playing basketball at the 8:30 mark of the 2nd half. With a ten point lead, with the ball, Jevon Carter pulled the ball out to near half court, stood there and dribbled. Bled clock. With over 8 minutes to go in the game. In a game where we were shooting the ball as well as ever - in a game where we led basically the entire way - at that point, we admitted that we were scared to play Kansas straight up for the remainder of the game, spotted ten points. It was as stunning as it was ignorant. Miss after miss followed, disjointed offense being ran with the goal of desperation heaves within the final seconds of the shot clock. In front of the entire nation, Bob Huggins and Jevon Carter gave our team a vasectomy. We became impotent. We had no balls. One team was playing to win - Kansas. The other team was playing to get on the bus - WVU. We got what we deserved. I tip my hat to Kansas for playing to win. When you have a ten point lead, for God's sake, try to make that lead 20 by the time the buzzer sounds!!! I would never fault a team for going down swinging. But, to lose a lead this meekly in a game so important...it's just exasperating.
2. Kansas once again has 9 steals vs. WVU, and we only had 4. Once again, you just gotta tip your hat to Kansas. They overplay against us, and dare our guys to drive or back-door cut, which we are not able to do. They deny the passing lanes well. And, Press Virginia just isn't a factor against them. Nevertheless, if we play Kansas straight up for 40 minutes, we still should win.
3. Hate wasting such a magnificent effort from Daxter Miles, Jr. 22 points including 6/9 from 3-point range. Yes, he had a head-scratcher of a turnover down the stretch. But, when we get this good of an effort from Dax, we win. Blows my mind that we couldn't get it done. The bad part is that he tends to follow up these great efforts with a clunker. Something to watch tomorrow vs. Baylor and their matchup zone.
4. Teddy Allen playing only 3 minutes is a real head-scratcher to me. Down the stretch, when we were watching the game slip through our fingers, I would've checked Teddy and Beetle into the game in a heartbeat, with the instruction to get the ball to Teddy on an iso right away. I thought this was the matchup where he could shine.
5. I would take Marcus Goree, Ty Salley, Jon Holton, PG Greene, and even Chris Moss over our current power forward position right now. 30 minutes from Esa Ahmad and we get three shot attempts, 2 points, 2 turnovers, 3 rebounds and 3 fouls? That's what it's come to from our 4? This is why Teddy Allen sits now?
***There's a life lesson in all of this for these kids. No matter the situation you're in, no matter how rosy the outlook may be or how bad it may look, you never, ever stop going full tilt. You never give up. If you're up 10 with 8 minutes to go, challenge yourself and try to win by 20! If you're down by 16 with 8 minutes to go, like we were against Missouri, you give it your all to storm back and win. Those two situations are not mutually exclusive. They are exactly the same metric. You never look at the score, you never look at the clock, you just keep throwing haymakers until the bell rings. I hope they learn from this. Because this loss Saturday was 100% on us. It was not the refs, it was not Phog Allen home-cooking. It was on us. It was entirely because we let Kansas off the mat instead of stomping on their throat.
